This blog consists of PhotoFeature Stories on artists of all genres, human interest stories, guest blog posts, book reviews, and book excerpts.
CHRIS RICE COOPER is a newspaper writer, feature stories writer, poet, fiction writer, photographer, and painter.
She has a Bachelor's in Criminal Justice and is close to completing her Master's in Creative Writing.
She, her husband Wayne, sons Nicholas and Caleb, cats Nation and Alaska reside in the St. Louis area.

On March 30, seven years ago, the subject of the 1984
academy award winning film The Killing Fields, Dith Pran, 65,
died of pancreatic cancer at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New
Brunswick, New Jersey.

Born on September 23, 1942 in Siem Reap, Cambodia, Pran was
educated in French and self-taught in English.He also taught himself photography, which would prove useful in future
endeavors.

In 1960, after completing high school, Pran was hired as a
translator for the United States Military Assistance Command.

Five years later Pran was hired as a translator for the
British film crew of the Peter O’Toole movie, Lord Jim.He also worked as a hotel
receptionist at the Angkor Wat Hotel.

In 1970, Lon Nol, backed by the U.S., seized power of the
Cambodian capital Phnom Penh from the Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge.Pran and his family moved to Phnom Penh where
he worked as a guide and interpreter for The New York Times
journalists.

In 1973, he became assistant to The New York Times
journalist Sydney Schanberg.

In April 1975,the
Pol Pot’s Khmer Rouge forces overthrew Lon Nol’s forces, and the U.S. withdrew
its troops from Vietnam.Vietnam was
conquered by the Khmer Rouge.

On April 12, 1975 all remaining U.S. troops left Cambodia and
the American Embassy was evacuated.Pran, aided by Schanberg, boarded his wife and four children on a
military truck to safety.

Pran, Schanberg, and two other New York Times
journalists stayed behind to report on the war.The streets were bloody and the Khmer Rouge became more and more
powerful:three million Cambodians were
forced out of their country and many others were slaughtered.

In late April of 1975, Pran, Schanberg, and the two
journalists visited a hospital where they were arrested by the Khmer Rouge and
held for execution.Pran convinced
authorities that the foreign journalists were French Nationals and, as a
result, they were all released.The four
sought refuge in the French Embassy.

Within days foreigners were asked to turn in their passports
and Cambodians were ordered to leave.Attempts were made by Pran’s journalist friends to give Pran a fake
French passport but those attempts failed.Pran was then forced to flee to the countryside.Schanberg and his two fellow journalists were
one of those last to evacuate the French Embassy.

By the end of April, Pran was captured by the Khmer Rouge and
sentenced to a Cambodian Labor Camp for life.He endured beatings, backbreaking labor and a diet of insects, rats,
snakes, exhumed corpses, and one teaspoon of rice per day.

The Khmer Rouge’s goal was to murder all of the educated as
well as anyone who exhibited Western influence.They hoped to recreate Cambodia as an agrarian society.The Khmer Rouge executed anyone wearing
eyeglasses, perfume, makeup, or watches.In order to survive, Pran feigned illiteracy, denied any American ties,
wore peasant clothing, and posed as a taxi driver.

In November of 1978 Vietnam invaded Cambodia and overthrew the
Khmer Rouge.Pran traveled back to his
hometown of Siem Reap, and found that at least fifty family members had been
murdered.His hometown honored him by
asking him to become village chief but he sensed they knew of his American ties
and fled.

Shortly thereafter, in September of 1979, Pran, along with two
companions, set out on a 60-mile-journey toward the Thailand border hiding from
bloodthirsty soldiers and avoiding the numerous land mines, which ultimately
killed his companions.On October 3,
1979 Pran walked across the border to Thailand alone.

Pran and Schanberg were reunited one week later at the
Thailand refugee camp.By this time over
a third of the Cambodian population had been murdered by the Khmer Rouge.Pran coined the phrase “the killing
fields” to describe the corpses and skulls he saw during the
60-mile-four-day-journey.

In 1980 Schanberg wrote “The Death and Life of Dith Pran”
for the New York Times Sunday
Magazine.

Pran testified before the U.S. House and Senate subcommittees
on East Asia and the Pacific.In 1985,
the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees appointed him Goodwill
Ambassador.

In 1986, Pran, along with
his first wife, Ser Moeun Dith, became a U.S. citizen.

In 1997 he and his second wife Kim DePaul
collaborated on a book of essays:Children of Cambodia’s Killing
Fields: Memoirs by Survivors.

Pran founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, which
is presided over today by his ex-wife, Kim DePaul.The DPHAP’smission is to “educate American students about the mass
killing, and the reign of terror of the Khmer Rouge.”

Pran’s survivors are his long-time companion Bette J Parslow;
ex-wives Ser Moeun Pran and Kim DePaul; one sister Samproeuth; one daughter
Hemkarey; three sons Titony, Titonath, Titonel; six grandchildren; two step
grandchildren; and his best friend and colleague Sydney Schanberg.

His remains were cremated in a private ceremony and rest at a
Buddhist temple in Washington D.C.

The one thing that will never die is Pran’s story that of The
Killing Fields, described by Schanberg as “The story he cared about the most.”

Pran gave an interview while in the hospital two weeks before
his death:“Please every body the world must stop the
killing fields.One time is too many.If they can do that for me, my spirit will be
happy.”

And Pran did have a
happy spirit, especially since May of 2000, when he met English and American
History teacher Bette Parslow, while he was speaking at her school.

“In fact, it was my birthday. I stayed
in the auditorium to sign late passes for my students. When I went out into the
hall Pran was waiting for me. He asked my if I was gong to the luncheon. I said
no, it was only for administrators and city officials, not for the teachers who
had prepared the students. He said then you will come as my guest. So I
did. At the luncheon he asked for my e-mail address. In an email he asked for
my phone number. A few days later he called and asked me out for dinner. The
rest, as they say, is history.”

Throughout their eight years together Pran would continue to
give speaking engagements.To the
public, Pran wanted every individual to remember The Killing Fields.He wanted them to never forget how he was one
amongst millions tortured by the Khmer Rouge.He also did not want anyone to forget the three million Cambodians
murdered by the Khmer Rouge.

But this was his public persona, or rather, only the part of
himself that he would willingly share to the public.The other side of him he only revealed to
those he was most intimate with and to those he trusted.And perhaps the person he trusted the most
was Parslow his companion of eight years.Parlsow described Pran as so much more than just The Killing Fields.

“He was a kind,
funny, interesting man – almost childlike in his enthusiasm about life.He was a very funny person – often without
meaning to be.He was a lot of fun and a
constant source of joy and love of life.”

When the two first started their romance Parslow had her two
cats Slick and Annie and Pran had a Maltese named Rosee.

“She was the first
pet he had ever had and he adored her.When we had her put to sleep he cried.I adopted Gabby because she needed a home and Pran needed a dog.He did not like her at first because she is
not really a Maltese and looks more like a terrier.He said she has a pointy nose and doesn’t
“attract”.It wasn’t long before she won
him over however.We took her
everywhere, including his son’s wedding.”

While Pran worked for the New York Times as a photojournalist
( a position he held since 1980) and Parslow taught English and American
History, they shared a condominium together.When they were not working, they sought refuge at their shore home
located on a New Jersey island.

“This island goes
from packed to deserted in the weeks following Labor Day.Pran loved it here.After years of being in the public eye, he
enjoyed the peace and the quiet.We were
here when he became ill in early December but stayed until late January because
we knew once we left, he would never return although we never said that out
loud.We just knew."

Pran’s pancreatic cancer worsened and he had to stay
in a rehabilitation hospital, which welcomed animals, enabling Pran to see
Gabby.

"Gabby and I met him at the entrance the
day he was transferred there.He cried
when he saw her and for the fist time in several weeks was animated and
upbeat.There really is something to be
said for pet therapy.Gabby is usually a
high energy little dog but when she was at the hospital she curled up next to
him and slept quietly for hours while he pet her.”

When Pran’s family learned of his illness, his ex wife
contacted Parslow.

“He was estranged
from them when I met him.I decided to
get them to reconcile.When he was
diagnosed his ex-wife wanted to come help take care of him.I though it would be nice for them to have
the last months of his life together to have some kind of closure.”

With Parslow’s encouragement, Pran reunited with his family,
who remained with him to the very end.

“It was an unfair
way to die but it was his fate.At
least I was able to bring his family together in the last years of his life and
they were there at the end when it counted.”

At his funeral, Parslow was saddened that her name was not
mentioned.She was even more saddened
that those who spoke at his funeral could only speak of his past, back in the
days of The Killing Fields.

“I am really the
only one who had daily contact with him the last 8 years.He was a bit of a recluse.I think that was part of the problem.They had nothing to say new about him – just
stories of the past.”

Despite the pain of not being mentioned and not knowing the
final resting place of Pran’s ashes, Parslow wouldn’t change any aspect of her
relationship with Pran.

“Pran and I were
companions for 8 years.I would not
trade a minute for something more safe or traditional.”

In
June of 2008, Bette was invited by Pran’s colleague, Marilyn Yee, to speak at
his memorial at The Times Center in New York City.After some hesitation, Bette accepted the
invitation.Her main goal was to reveal
the major aspects of Pran’s identity that had nothing to do with just The
Killing Fields.

“I waned them to know Pran as an
everyday private person.He was a lot of
fun and a constant source of joy and love of life.I miss him everyday.”

Bette,
with their dog Gabby, walked on the beach for a few days, thinking of what to
write, and literally wrote the speech in her head during those walks.

“The only problem was how to end it.My neighbor Maria was here for the weekend a week before the
memorial.She made that remark about
never knowing any one like him again, and I knew I had my ending.”

My
name is Bette.Pran was my companion and
best friend for 8 years until he passed away in March.In my heart, he will always be my companion
and best friend.

Many
of you have known Pran longer, worked with him, socialized with him.I wondered what I could share with you that
you didn’t already know.I decided to
tell you about his tomatoes.

I
have a house at the Jersey shore where we spent all of our summers and have
lived most of the time the last two years.The first summer he wanted to take over my flower garden to grow
vegetables.Flowers he said are a waste
of time.So we compromised, and I had a
garden built for his vegetables in the yard behind the house.It wasn’t enough.The following year he convinced me to take
down the overgrown blue spruce and put a circular garden in its place.It also wasn’t enough.Another circular garden followed but it still
wasn’t enough.There was no more room
for permanent gardens so he announced he would solve the problem the Cambodian
way – which means an ingenious, unorthodox, creative solution, 10 gallon
storage boxes – 12 of them – scattered around the yard and driveway.Last summer we had over 2 dozen tomato
plants, 12 eggplants, countless peppers so hot they burned my hands when I
chopped them to make salsa, cucumbers, and beans.In other words we had a working farm.He used to get up at 4:30 to tend his garden;
weed, water, and make sure the tomatoes were secure in their cages.Sleep, he believed, was a waste of time.I could hear him outside talking to his
tomatoes – You’re beautiful, he would tell them, You do good job, and his
highest praise – You are very professional.

The
tomato crop was epic – beautiful tomatoes from the small sweet cherry to his
personal favorite, the mighty beefsteak, ripening daily by the dozens.We ate them at every meal, chopped them up
and froze them for the winter, made sauce, soup – there were too many.We gave bags full to all our neighbors –
there were still too many.So, it was
time for another one of Pran’s Cambodian solutions.He began waiting at the fence for people
walking back from he beach.As they
approached he would say, “Hello, do you like tomatoes?”Their first reaction was wary hesitation but
he always won them over with his disarming smile.“Yes,” most answered.“We love tomatoes, especially home grown
Jersey tomatoes.”“Wait here,” he would
say, and disappear behind the house returning with a bag bulging with an
assortment of ripe tomatoes.Can you
imagine the looks on their faces?Disbelief.They went off with
their prize after a lot of laugher and thank you’s.The tomato problem was solved – with good
humor and generosity.

In the weeks after Pran’s funeral, our
neighbors began returning to their shore houses on weekends.Only Colleen and Frank knew of his
illness.Colleen gave Pran the famous
buzz cut just before he went back to Woodbridge to be closer to his doctors and
the hospital.The others could not
believe he was gone, and they were amazed to learn he was famous.To them he was the friendly smiling neighbor
who gave them vegetables from his garden, walked his dog Gabby to the beach at
dawn to watch the sunrise, took long bike rides with Gabby in the special dog
safe basket he ordered from sky mall, and cooked everything on his grill,
including bacon and eggs.Our neighbors
Rob and Maria, like many others, rented The
Killing Fields to learn more about the man Maria gossiped with over the
back fence.Pran loved to gossip.Maria said, “Bette, what a life.The things he’s done.What he’s been through.I can’t believe I complained about my in laws
to him.”Then she got very serious and
said, “In my whole life, I will never meet anyone like him ever again.”Isn’t that why we are here today sharing our
memories?We will never meet any one
like him ever again.

Since giving the speech, Bette reminisces even more about what
made Pran the individual that he was and the memories they experienced
together.

“Pran loved to take road trips. We often got in the car
with Gabby and set out for places like Valley Forge, Lancaster County, Jockey
Hollow, Monmouth Battlefield, and Bull Run. He loved history and liked to
explore places where history took place.We were also planning to rent an RV and drive cross county with Gabby.

The best Christmas we spent together was a few years ago.
He was working that day. We went to Washington Crossing Park in Pennsylvania to
take pictures of the reenactment of Washington crossing the Delaware to
surprise the Hessians in Trenton. It was a beautiful day but very cold. You
would not believe the number of people that were out in the cold to watch
history reenacted. On the way home we stopped at aVietnamese restaurant
and ate noodle soup, spring rolls, and lok lak.

Every year in April we went to the Cambodian New Year
celebration either in Philadelphia or Camden. There is traditional folk
dancing, lots of food, and monks chanting in the temple. One year we stopped at
the Camden waterfront and toured the battleship New Jersey. One of the best
days we spent was at the Museum of Natural History. He especially liked the
exhibits about primitive man and how they developed ways to cope with their
environment. His comments always began with “How in the planet?How in the planet did they know to sharpen
that spear?How in the planet did they
decide to put that meat in the fire?How
in the planet did they make that dog their companion?”And always with a sense of wonder and
fascination. It was another one of those days that I'll always remember and
smile.

Pran was more than a genocide survivor.He was a warm, funny, unique individual.Even though Pran is gone he left behind a
legacy of smiles.”

It’s been seven years since Dith Pran’s
death, and those few years have been bittersweet ones for Parslow.Her house located on a New Jersey island,
between the ocean and the bay, survived Superstorm Sandy, but she and her
neighbors had to evacuate and were not allowed back to the island until four
months later; and it took even longer to get the necessary utility inspections
and restorations completed.

The most difficult loss was that of
Gabby, the beloved dog owned by Dith and herself, who was attacked and killed
by a pit bull while the two were taking a walk along the beach.Even after two years, Parslow still finds it
extremely upsetting, but she has hope.

“Gabby is with Pran now.”

Parslow’s life is full and she is now the caretaker of three dogs:Sabai which means good health or good fortune
in Khmer; Yoda; and a special needs dog,eleven year old Tyson. And of course her cat Slick.

“The sad things that happened to me
are no worse than the sad things everyone deals with.Sadness is a risk one takes when embracing
new experiences.So I guess I will pass
on the quotes from poets and philosphers and go with one of my favorite figtures
in history, General George Patton, and soldier on.”

Photograph Description and Copyright Information

Photo 1

Dith Pran, Bette Parslow, and Gabby

March 2008

Copyright granted by Bette Parslow

Photo 2

The Killing Fields movie poster

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 3

Map of Cambodia

Public Domain

Photo 4

Lord Jim movie poster

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 5

Lon Nol

Public Domain

Photo 6

Jacket cover of Beyond The Killing Fields

Photo 7

Pol Pot

Public Domain

Photo 8

Ser Moeun and children Titony, Titonath, Titonel, and Hemkarey.

This photo was taken in San Francisco upon their entry to the United States from Cambodia

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 9

The Killing Fields move poster depicted the scene where the journalists are held by the Khmer Rouge.

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 10

Dith Pran in February in February 1975

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 11

The Killing Fields movie poster and booklet

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 12

Map of Thailand and Cambodia

Public Domain

Photo 13

The Killing Fields

Public Domain

Photo 14

Jacket cover of The Death And Life Of Dith Pran by Sydney Schanberg

Photo 15

Ser Moeun Pran and Dith Pran at his appointment to Goodwill Ambassador

Public Domain

Photo 16

Dith Pran and Ser Moeun Pran being sworn in as United States Citizens.

Public Domain

Photo 17

Jacket cover of Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields

Photo 18

Web logo photo for the Dith Pran Holocaust Awarenss Project webpage.

Public Domain

Photo 19

Dith Pran and Bette Parslow

March 2009

Copyright granted by Bette Parslow

Photo 20

Bette Parslow and Gabby

Copyright granted by Bette Parslow

Photo 21

Bette Parslow and Dith Pran at his son's engagement party.

Copyright granted by Bette Parslow

Photo 22

Photos of the victims of the Khmer Rouge

Public Domain

Photo 23

Dith Pran and Gabby

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 24

Dith Pran and Bette Parslow at the wedding of his son Tony and daughter-in-law Vornidas.

Copyright granted by Bette Parslow

Photo 25

Image from the brochure cover of the memorial of Dith Pran

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 26

Dith Pran and Gabby

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 27

Sidney Schanberg and Dith Pran's reunion in Thailand in October 1979.

Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law

Photo 28

The beach in Spring Lake, New Jersey

Attributed Nick Harris

CCA 2.5 Generic

Photo 29

Bette Parslow speaking at Dith Pran's memorial service in New York City

June 2008

Photo 30

Bette Parslow speaking at Dith Pran's memorial service in New York City

June 2008

Photo 31

Family and friends at Dith Pran's memorial service in New York City.Far left back row Sam Waterston who portrayed Sydney Schanberg in The Killings FieldsSecond from the far right back row is Sydney SchanbergSecond from the right in the white sleeveless blouse is Bette ParslowPhoto 32Painting of Washington crossing the DelawarePublic DomainPhoto 33 and 34Dith Pran with Gabby and his tomato plantsCopyright granted by Bette Parslow Photo 35Tyson, Sobai, and YodaCopyright granted by Bette ParslowPhoto 36Bette with SobaiCopyright granted by Bette Parslow.

“I was born nine months after her death on
November 26, 1963. My grandmother’s name was Sylvia. Our parents were
first generation immigrants. She was American and moved to Britain. My mother
was British and came to America. Her father and my grandfather both lost their
left legs. I lined up all the letters in my name and hers, whether using maiden
names or first marriage or even with my second marriage, and they all evened
out to the same amount of letters. Weird stuff like that.”

Bramer-Gordon is private about her childhood,
teen years, and upbringing, but does reveal her first experience of writing, at
the age of six, when she wrote to her grandparents who lived in Britain on the
same thin blue airmail paper she came to work with so often in the Sylvia Plath
archives.

It was also the same age she bought her first
deck of tarot reading cards in a magic shop. That day in the magic shop
at the age of 16 with her first pack of tarot cards changed her life, and for
the better.

“I was captivated by the artwork. They were just
the most beautiful things I’d ever seen. For the longest time I used the little
book that comes with the set, and I wasn’t reliant on my imagination or my
intuition. I suppose I’ve always known I was intuitive. I’ve always known that
I could walk into a room and sense if there’d been a fight or someone was in
love. I’m tuned into emotions. I’ve just figured out what that meant over the
years. It took some time. There is no rule book for psychic energy.”

Gordon-Bramer has been reading tarot cards ever
since, but did not become a professional tarot card reader until 2007.
Before she became a tarot card reader, she worked in a variety of career
fields: marketing, advertising, public relations, technical writing,
newspaper writing, and the health fitness industry.

She and her first husband moved from Washington
D.C. to St Louis to later divorce; and Gordon-Bramer started an alternative
music magazine in 1995 called Night Times, where she met her second
husband Tom Bramer, who was the lead guitarist of a band called Radio
Iodine. She’s written a memoir about her experiences with Night
Times and plans to publish it soon.

She taught English at St. Louis Community
College-Florissant Valley (in the heart of the Ferguson riot area) from
2007-2010. (http://www.stlcc.edu/FV/)

It wasn’t until she attended the University of
Missouri-St. Louis, where she earned her Master of Fine Arts In Creative
Writing with a focus on Poetry and Fiction in 2010 that she became a
Professional Tarot Card Reader.

“I was in graduate school, and I would bring my
cards into class sometimes just goofing around. We had a Christmas poetry
party, and it was hilarious because you get a bunch of poets together and a
couple bottles of wine, and I had the whole party in tears. It affected a lot
of people on a very deep level. My professor saw this and said, ‘You need to be
doing this professionally.’ He brought me into some of his other classes to
read for them at different events. Then I started having people ask me to do
their parties, so I thought, “I’ll have to come up with some kind of price for
this stuff.” It just grew from there.”

Gordon-Bramer defines the tarot as a set of
symbols and archetypes that work across every culture, without excluding anyone
based on race, ethnicity, gender, or sexual preference.

“Everyone has a wise man, everyone has lovers,
everyone has mother figures. These things represent the story of life and tarot
breaks that story up into little pieces. I liken it to dream interpretation.
The human brain wants to make connections. The brain wants to find meaning in
everything. So when I put your tarot cards down, and I explain what I see,
you’re naturally going to look to how that fits and make it work for you.”

She now has clients worldwide (including Hong
Kong, Germany, and the Netherlands) with whom she connects everywhere from
meetings at the local St. Louis coffee shops to Skype sessions, phone
conversations, and email readings.

Since then, Gordon-Bramer has been listed as one
of St. Louis’ Top Ten Psychics, made television appearances on MTV,
Nickelodeon, many local TV and radio programs, websites, magazines and
newspapers.

Around the same time period she became a
Professional Tarot Card reader, Gordon-Bramer identified Sylvia Plath’s
intentional alignment with the tarot.

“I saw the relationship to the tarot clearly. At
that time, I did not know anything about Qabalah. But I’d lined up all 22 of
the major arcana poems, and knew that Plath was too much of a perfectionist to
have just thrown in another 18 poems randomly.

In the tarot there are 56 cards in the minor
arcana, however, so it wasn’t very clear at first. Then I realized she
had used a poem for each rank: the ones, the twos, and so on. There are
four suits, four cards in each rank, followed by the court cards of Pages,
Knights, Queens and Kings. I had four poems left, Plath’s famous Bee
Poems, and these represent the suits themselves: the Pentacles, Wands, Swords
and Cups."

In fact Fixed Stars, Gordon-Bramer builds
the case that it was Plath’s intention to deliberately write the Ariel
poems in this way, each line of all of the Ariel poems revealing and
corresponding with the six mirrors of Qabalah – in other words, each poem can
be read six different, yet-related ways: Tarot/Qabalah mirror; Alchemy mirror;
Mythology mirror; History and the World mirror; Astrology and Astronomy mirror;
and Arts and the Humanities mirror.

“Qabalah is an umbrella term that covers all the
occult sciences, and tarot is just a way to understand oneself, others, and
where your energy is going. I am lately calling Qabalah “God’s Social Network.”
Think of God at the top of the tree of life, the Big Brain with the messages,
and each path and point of the Tree might be Facebook, Instagram, Twitter,
email, etc. Only we’ll call them Astrology, Alchemy, and the like. Different
styles for different audiences, but related messages with the same overall
intention.”

"I do remember the moment when it all came
clear for me: I was teaching English at St. Louis Community College. It was final
exam time and I was working on Plath while the students tested, quietly noting
the correspondences and matches Ariel had with tarot cards and symbols. The
room was empty by the time the truth of the final Bee Poems hit me. I was so
happy I began to cry. It was too beautiful. I had no one to share it with, and
yet I knew this would change my life.”

She read and re-read all of the Ariel poems,
feeling each word, and trying to understand all of its meaning; though
sometimes this was difficult, she still was able to feel the poem.

“I think that feel and understanding are two
different, yet complementary, things. Certainly the feel helps with the
understanding. We all feel Plath’s “Lady Lazarus” (http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/178961)
to be a feminist poem, for instance. You can’t read that last line, “And I eat
men like air” and not feel female power.

But it’s not until you have the Qabalistic
structure that you can see it’s a poem aligned with the Lovers card, which
prominently features the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite has many other
names: Venus and Lucifer, for example.

And then we can read the Plath poem and
understand that in “Lady Lazarus” she is talking about the planet Venus, the
only planet named after a woman in our Solar System, and a planet that turns in
the opposite direction from the others.

This planet was named after the goddess Venus,
who is sometimes called Aphrodite or Lucifer.
Venus/Aphrodite/Lucifer’s alchemical element is copper, also in Plath’s poem,
and Plath has also woven in the story of that very famous copper-plated statue
of Lucifer standing in the harbor of New York City, the Statue of Liberty.

And who’s the poet who wrote the “Give Me Your
tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” poem on the plaque at the bottom? Oh
yes, the Jewish feminist poet, Emma Lazarus. It’s all there, and so perfectly
done.”

Gordon-Bramer shared her new revelation with her
professor, Dr. Steven Schreiner from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. In fact, it was Dr. Schreiner’s urging that
Gordon-Bramer decided to write about her revelation as her semester-end
project.

Gordon-Bramer wrote her own poetry during this time as
well; and was named Voted Best Local Poet in St. Louis in 2013 by The
Riverfront Times. (http://www.riverfronttimes.com)

Studying
“Ariel”

Bound
calm torpor, in this cozy cell

and
drugged, woozy with weight

from
twenty sentinels stacked;

their
musty smell, bodies’ black

blood
and hard spines cracked.

Found
notations, little atom bombs

from
others fallen; prisoners like me, held

within
the magnanimous shifting

of
gray library afternoons.

Listening
to the seductive multitudes

within
you, post-Tokyo Rose.

Twenty-two
to my zero

in
a system rigged by God

where
obstacles are air,

not
mushroom clouds;

the
body, only thought. Talk

to
me of secrets higher than

the
sweet grief, Mother Japan.

Your
dew tears rise to burn

from
their water sign, then turn

toward
my arrow. Fixed disintegration.

We
fly together, solo kamikazes

the
savage, true suicide ride

toward
the flagging red eye,

a
greater fire.

*Poem
first appeared in Women Arts Quarterly Journal

Copyright
granted by Julia Gordon-Bramer

Gordon-Bramer continues to write poetry and likes to
describe herself as a modernist poet who has learned everything from Sylvia
Plath, and is in the process of learning more about poetry from a personal
friend of Plath and her husband Ted Hughes’, Zulfikar Ghose.

“Zulfikar Ghose is a genius writer of poetry, fiction, and
essay, was a personal friend of theirs back in early 1960s London, and he is
one of my favorite people on the planet. If you have not read his work, you
must. I am on a mission to read and review all of his books. You can find my
reviews on Amazon and Goodreads."

One of the benefits of doing a project such as Fixed Stars,
which took Gordon-Bramer over seven years to complete, is that she got to know
the work, published and unpublished, of Sylvia Plath on such an intimate level.
As a result, she has been able to dispel numerous myths about Plath, her life,
and her poetry.

One of those myths is that since Plath was a proclaimed atheist,
she was not spiritual: “Atheism does not mean a person is not
spiritual. Atheism denies a God, gods, or angels. It does not deny
energy, or the Jungian collective unconscious, or any number of occult
endeavors Plath and her husband Ted Hughes actively pursued.

Over the last eight years I’ve been in the Plath archives reading
all her diaries, calendar entries, journals and scrapbooks since childhood. She
has always been into various forms of mysticism.

Plath’s Sunday school homework in the Unitarian Church,
which she said was a part of her right until her last days, included study of
myth and astrology! She carved a Hermetic Caduceus in high school. Her mother
studied the famous alchemist Paracelsus for her master’s degree. And that is
just some of the influence on Plath before she met Ted Hughes, who pushed her
further into Ouija, crystal ball scrying, bibliomancy, Kundalini yoga and
meditation, visiting witches, and so much more. She worshiped Hughes up until
their marriage fell apart, and his work has been widely examined for occult
leanings.

It makes sense that Plath hid her interest in the occult: she had
been institutionalized, after all. She wanted to be taken seriously, she was a
young mother, and witchcraft laws had just been taken off the books as a crime
a handful of years earlier."

Another misconception of Plath, according to Gordon-Bramer,
is that she was a confessional poet.

“Ted Hughes said she was a mystical poet. From 1956 on I have
evidence she consciously built mysticism into the structure of her work to give
it more resonance. I have published her 1956 poem interpretations on Plath
Profiles, and my decoding of her 1957 poems is about to be published.”

Gordon-Bramer also would like to dispel myths about the tarot, one of which is
that she, as a tarot card reader, is trying to conjure up sprits, when in
reality that is not the case.

“The tarot is just a tool to examine the subconscious and to show connections,
belief systems, and the direction of one’s energy. I compare it to dream
analysis, and it can be really helpful when one wants direction, understanding,
or advice.”

Another myth of the Qabalah and tarot is that it is a belief system, and
therefore would require conversion.Gordon-Bramer also states that one can certainly be a Christian and use
tarot at the same time.

“Tarot and Qabalah are not belief
systems and would only support whatever greater energy one wants to believe in.Tarot is a tool that yes, some people laugh
at, but others, like the famous psychologist Carl Jung, have taken very
seriously. Plath and Hughes were very into Jung, by the way. Now, a
fundamentalist Christian will probably tell you differently, because they are
generally against all forms of divination.

There are three different types of Qabalah: Kabbala, Qabalah, and Cabala,
with various other spellings. Kabbala with a K is the Jewish and oldest
brand; Cabala with a C is the Christian version; and Qabalah is the Hermetic
version, from the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, of which the famous
writers W.B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot were associated.

Perhaps the most difficult and painful lesson to learn was of isolation
Gordon-Bramer encountered along her seven-year journey of writing this book.

“I am glad that I didn’t know when I began how far down the
rabbit hole I’d be going with this work. I probably would have run away
screaming. I’ve had to give up so much, and have had almost no social life for
almost a decade. There is so much to learn and to read. In my journal the other
day, I wrote that I feel I am the Cliff Notes version of Sylvia. That’s the
best I can do for now. I try to read deeper and more widely every day, but it
is a challenge with having to make a living in the meantime.”

She’s also experienced rejection, discouragement and
skepticism along the way, specifically from the academic world: “Academia
decided long ago that Plath was only a confessional poet, merely depressive,
and feminist at best. They are also viciously competitive and quick to diss a
tarot card reader without a PhD. Because of this tunnel vision, no one thought
to look further into Plath, and the main themes and points of her poems have
gone unnoticed for over fifty years.”

Gordon-Bramer has two adult sons and presently lives in St. Louis with her
husband, Tom Bramer. She is currently working on Fixed Stars Govern a
Life: Decoding the Sylvia Plath, Volume 2; is in the process of editing The
Magician’s Girl, a biography of Plath’s’ and Hughes’ mysticism; and working
on Plath’s earlier poems, which may or may not become a book.

The Qabalah Tree of Life with tarot cards applied to its pathways and stations

Attributed to Julia Gordon-Bramer

Page 14 of Fixed Stars

Copyright granted by Julia Gordon-Bramer

Photo 16

Diagram of the Qabalah Tree of Life with both major and minor arcana tarot cards laid over their corresponding paths, widely known to qabalist, matched with Plath’s Ariel poems as they fit upon this structure.

Attributed to Julia Gordon Bramer

Page 15 of Fixed Stars

Copyright granted by Julia Gordon-Bramer

Photo 17

Tarot Reading Card deck - 56 cards

Public Domain

Photo 18

Otot, a painting of the
illumination of the Hebrew letters in creation

Oil
on canvas

Attributed
to David Rakia

CCASA
3.0 Unported License

Photo 19

Julia Gordon-Bramer writing.Copyright granted by Julia Gordon-Bramer

Photo 20

Illustration from an 11th century medieval handbook on health and wellbeing